Will metro eat into autorickshaw drivers’ income?
Unlike majority of people who are enthusiastic about their first ride on metro, there is a group reeling under insecurity ahead of the launch of the service.
“Our income will surely go down once metro starts running,” said Mehmood Khan, an auto-rickshaw driver who operates between Charbagh station and Krishna Nagar.
Khan, who has been driving auto-rickshaw for the last 14 years, said it was for the first time that drivers were facing such a big crisis.
Khan is not alone. More than 3,000 auto-rickshaw and tempo drivers feel metro would eat into their income.
“This is the busiest route where you get passengers round-the-clock. It is the only stretch that has two bus stations and two railway stations adding to the passenger rush. A cheaper mode of public transport will surely leave a severe dent on our income,” said a driver Krishna Maurya.
“We have faith in God. We are hopeful whatever happens would be for our good,” said Ram Shankar Sharma, a tempo driver.
“You never know. Metro may even help us in increasing our income,” he said.
LMRC officials said metro would bring down the number of auto-rickshaws as people would obviously opt for cheapest and hassle-free mode of transport.
According to official records of LMRC, the total number of daily auto-rickshaw trips on the 8.5-km metro rail stretch from Transport Nagar to Charbagh is around 87,463, twowheeler trips is 13,86,413, while car trips is 2,16,425.
The records project a drastic shift by 2020.
“By 2020, the two-wheeler trips would be reduced by 28,415 , car by 7,104, auto-rickshaw by 4,440 and shared auto-rickshaw by 17,759 ,” the records said.